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Litecoin creator says the upcoming fork is scam

Most people have absolutely no idea what Litecoin is, or that the sixth cryptocurrency of the world by market cap is about to get a fork of its own much like Bitcoin did last year. Some of those who are aware of Litecoin probably know that Litecoin Cash is coming soon, “sold” as a faster version of Litecoin when it comes to transaction times.

Whatever the case, you should stay away from Litecoin Cash right now, as the actual founder of Litecoin sees it as a potential scam.

One of the worries with cryptocurrencies these days and the number one reason why regulation is needed is that anyone can launch their own digital coin and scam people out of money. Rinse and repeat when you’re done, there’s no law to stop you.

That’s probably why someone other than the Litecoin creator is now looking to launch a fork that has “Litecoin” in its name.

As Business Insider explains, Litecoin owners will get 10 Litecoin Cash coins for each Litecoin unit they have when the forks will happen sometime next week. That sounds like a sweet deal, especially if you bought Litecoin token when the price was really low — the coin rose from $3.73 a year ago to $365 in December before plunging to $150-ish right now.

But you should handle Litecoin Cash with immense care. Just because it has “Litecoin” in its name doesn’t make it a legit endeavor.

PSA: The Litecoin team and I are not forking Litecoin. Any forks that you hear about is a scam trying to confuse you to think it's related to Litecoin. Don't fall for it and definitely don't enter your private keys or seed into their website or client. Be careful out there! https://t.co/qXbiIxp5Al

— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) February 4, 2018

The goal of the Litecoin Cash coin is, as stated before to increase “blood speed” to 2.5 minutes. That’s the speed at which the network can process transactions, which should be faster than Litecoin’s. On paper.

But it’s not known who operates Litecoin Cash, other than the fact they hide behind the Litecoin Cash Foundation.

Litecoin is currently trading at $157.06, some 0.12% lower than yesterday, so the incoming Litecoin Cash fork is yet to dent Litecoin’s market cap or reputation.